Draco's hidden desire
by HanPN
Summary: Draco Malfoy tries to invite Hermione Granger to the Yule Ball. Will she say yes? If she says yes, what will happen? Read to find out. *COMPLETE*
1. The question

**D**raco Malfoy walked quickly through the library. The dusty smell of old books quickly filled his nostrils. He was rather nervous. The Yule Ball was coming up and he had a specific Gryffindor in mind to ask out. Someone who also happened to despise him. Ever since she'd punched him in the face, breaking his nose, he'd come to respect her, and only more recently he found his heart beating faster at the sight of her, his thoughts being haunted with her and his dreams being filled with her: Hermione Granger. The one person in the world he on principal _had _to hate, _had_ to tease. He then heard a familiar voice mumbling slightly and he stopped in his tracks. How the heck was he going to do this? She hated him as much as he was supposed to hate her. He cleared his throat and finally saw the bushy-haired Granger. She was standing with her back to him, apparantly looking for a book. He slowly and silently walked over to her, and planted his best sneer on his face.

"Talking to yourself Granger? I always knew you were a tosser," he said, his voice nasty. Hermione jumped before glancing at him over his shoulder.

"Go away Malfoy," she said.

"That's what you always say. Can't you be a bit more creative?"

"You're not worth it," she told him, turning sideways to search for the book there.

"Did you hear that sound? That was my wounded ego crashing to the floor."

"Very funny Malfoy. Now beat it," she told him, glancing at him once more. Those eyes were so beautiful.

"I am quite the jokester, it's true."

She rolled her eyes.

"You know, I haven't gotten my revenge on you since you broke my nose."

Hermione looked a bit shocked.

"I broke it?"

"Yes, you did."

She seemed to get back to herself then. "Well, your face looks just as perfect as before," she sneered.

"Ooh, a compliment."

"Evidently one you don't deserve," she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Ow, you wound me!"

"Trust me, I can do worse than that."

"So I imagine."

"And by the way, all the times of calling me a 'filthy little mudblood' makes up for that broken nose, don't you think?"

Malfoy was speechless for a second.

"Actually, no." He finally managed. Hermione finally sighed and gave up finding her book.

"Why don't you just go die somewhere?" she asked him, meeting his eye square on. "Perhaps behind a bush?"

He shrugged. "It's a beautiful day. I have better things to do."

Hermione sighed. "Like bothering me?"

"Precisely."

"Oh, just implode already. Go into hiding. Jump off a building-"

"Go to the ball with me?"

_Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit_.

Hermione frowned.

"Come again? I'm pretty sure you just asked a muggle-born to the Yule Ball." Draco shrugged.

"You heard me right," he finally said. Hermione thought for a while.

"Why?"

Draco bit his lip.

"Uhhm.."

Hermione chuckled. "Draco Malfoy, speechless? That's a first. Nice try anyway Malfoy. Where are the other Slytherins hiding?" she asked, looking around. He frowned.

"What other Slytherins?" he asked, confused. Hermione shrugged.

"Oh please. The ones waiting for a good laugh? The ones going to mock me? _Those _Slytherins?"

He shook his head. "I'm alone here, Granger."

"If you think I'm going to let you ridicule me-"

"Hermione, I'm not kidding here," Draco finally said. Hermione looked really confused when he said her name. "I know it sounds impossible but I'd just like to go to the ball with you."

Hermione bit her lip.

"You know, starting off with mocking me and teasing me isn't a good way to get me to go anywhere with you," she said.

"It's a habit," Draco said. Hermione narrowed her eyes. Draco sighed.

"I'm sorry."

Hermione was quiet for a while. "Fine, I'll go to the ball with you."

Dracos eyes widened, heart pounding faster.

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"I—alright then, I guess I'll see you there?"

"I guess you will."

Draco turned around, leaving the library with a huge grin on his face.


	2. Looking deeper

**AUTHORS NOTE: Thanks alot to those who read and reviewed part one of this story! It was meant to just be the one chapter, but after receiving a bit of encouragement, I decided to try and write more. Hope you'll enjoy it!**

**DISCLAIMER BECAUSE I FORGOT IN THE FIRST CHAPTER: **

**I wish I did, but I do not own any of the characters, locations or items of the Harry Potter universe. I simply write for my own pleasure.**

"What are you smirking for?" Pansy asked him. Draco immediately put on his trademark sneer and glared at her. She was practically sitting on him.

"It's nothing," he said, lazily. She blinked and rested her head on his shoulder. Draco wrinkled his nose and turned his face the other way.

"You know Draco," Pansy said, tracing a claw down his neck. Draco sighed. "I haven't been asked to the Yule Ball yet. I was kind of hoping that _you'd _pluck up the courage and ask me, but never mind."

Draco returned his cold, grey eyes on her face. Pansy leaned away slightly, pretending to look hurt.

"So, I was wondering if you'd go to the ball with me?"

Draco snorted. He had to, to conceal his laughter.

"No," he simply said, coldly. Pansy looked like he'd slapped her, her grimace only making him laugh harder.

"No? What do you _mean_ no?" She screeched.

"Exactly that. No. I'm taking someone else," he said, crossing his legs and looking away again. God she was annoying.

"Who?" she said, her tone turning nearly three pitches higher.

"'S none of your business, really."

"B-but.. I-you..we," Pansy spluttered.

"Haven't you got someone else to annoy?" Draco asked, finally having enough. He knew he was being cruel but didn't really think twice about it. It came naturally to him now, though sometimes he did say things he really didn't mean, and didn't want to say. But who he was and who his father was meant he had to say it, despite the fact that it sometimes saddened him.

In this case however, he just didn't care.

Pansy took in a deep breath that sounded more like a sob before leaving quickly.

"Nicely done, Draco," Blaise said. Draco found his eyes and smiled. He basically got rewarded for being an ass.

"Yeah."

Draco would of course never admit it, but he was really nervous about going to the Yule Ball with Hermione. He'd called her a mudblood for the biggest part of five years, and now they were going together. He had never fully shared his fathers belief of pureblooded wizards being the only ones who should rightfully wield magic, though he had believed so for a short period of time. Before he saw Hermione. He got to his feet and went for a walk, turning a corner and nearly fell over Hermione.

"Vud you like to go to ze ball with me?"

Hermione twirled around, her eyebrows dissapearing under her bangs.

"What?" she asked. Had Viktor just..?

"Ze ball? You and me?" he said, smiling. Hermione bit her lip, cursing herself for saying yes to go with Draco. She hadn't expected anyone else to ask her and that was the only reason she said yes. Okay, it wasn't. She had woken up one morning and found that she'd gotten a soft spot for a certain Slytherin. A big, nasty, foul-mouthed evil ass of a Slytherin, but somehow she still had it. She sighed.

"I'm sorry Viktor. I'd love to, but I already said yes to go with-" Hermione quickly stopped herself from mentioning his name. "-someone."

Viktor simply smiled and nodded, taking her hand in his and kissing it.

"It's alright. I will just ask any of ze other girls. Farewell Hermi-ninny."

Hermione sighed. Now she felt slightly better about the whole thing. He had tons of backups. She caught the eye of a girl scowling at her.

"What?" Hermione asked. The girl quickly looked away. Great. She was probably going to be hated now that she'd been the girl that turned down Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian bonbon. Hermione turned around and left the library, deciding that she needed some fresh air. She'd been walking, harmlessly in her own thoughts when she turned a corner and nearly crashed into Malfoy.

"Whoa, Granger, careful there," Draco said, his tone automatically unfriendly. He shook his head and cleared his throat. "Sorry."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him. "Viktor Krum just asked me to go to the ball with him," she told him. Immediately Dracos heart sank. He swallowed. "You're going with him then, I presume?" he asked. Hermione frowned and shook her head.

"Of course not. I already said I'd go with you."

Draco silently took a deep breath and offered her a small smile. She looked utterly and completely thrown off by the friendly gesture. By the look on her face, Draco couldn't help but throw his head back and laugh.

"My God, Granger. Do I really seem like such a stick-in-the-mud?" he asked her. She straightened her back, cheeks flaring red.

"Yes," she promptly answered him. Draco laughed again, then turning serious.

"Speaking of the ball, where do we meet up?" he asked. Hermione bit her lip.

"Uhm. The entrance hall, I presume?" Hermione said. Draco nodded.

"Good. See you friday," he told her and walked off. Hermione stared after him, completely fascinated by his smile.


	3. The ball

"Oh God, oh God, Merlin's pants what am I doing?" Hermione whispered to herself, pacing on the floor and clearly making the other girls nervous. Her heart was filled with icy stabs of confusion and despair.

"Who are you going with?" asked Ginny who'd come to comfort her.

"I- uhm it's a secret. Yeah. A big one," Hermione said, giving Ginny the shortest, most insincere smile she'd ever managed to bring to her face. The feeling she had was even worse than preparing for exams!

"Hermione? Ron and I will wait in the entrance hall," Harry called from the other side of the door. "Alright, see you there Harry," she called back. Hermione took a deep breath, spraying on some more perfume before looking at herself in the mirror. Her pink dress clung to her body and her usually bushy hair was curled beautifully and put up in a stylish fashion. She didn't remember ever feeling this beautiful.

And with that thought on her mind she left the girls dormitories, went through the castle to her destination, feeling like she was about to throw up.

"Merlin, Merlin, Merlin, Merlin," she whispered quickly to herself, walking down the stairs, searching for her... dared she think it? She did. Her date.

Hermione Granger had a date for the Yule Ball. By the breath of Filch she'd never imagined that. And somehow that made her feel all the better. She noticed silver blonde hair at the middle of the room and then her eyes found the silver orbs of Draco who was staring at her as she came down the stairs. Once at the bottom of the stairs her nerves made her stop walking. How would people react?

And he was coming towards her, and there was Harry and Ron right beside him, both smiling at her. Their smiles faded rapidly as Draco reached her, giving her another of those warm smiles.

"You look positively ill. Is it really that bad?"

"Harry and Ron will kill me," she whispered, eying them from a distance. Draco shrugged.

"Guess that's the advantage of not having any friends in my case," he said. It took Hermione a few seconds to realize that he was trying to make her feel better, and she smiled.

"If they hate you for being here with me, they're not really friends, are they?" he asked, taking her hand in his and turning to face Harry and Ron. He sent them his slickest smile before guiding Hermione across the room and into the Great Hall. As people saw them they were shocked, and they had their reasons. Somehow when the music started playing, Hermione felt a bit calmer. So far no one had spoken to her, and if they kept that up she might live through it.

"Hermione, would you like to dance?" Draco asked. Hermione, liking that he'd begun using her first name, nodded. With that they went to the dance floor, standing close in the crowd of people and as elegantly as they could muster they begun dancing. Hermione was embarrassed and felt a bit bad as she'd always thought she had two left feet, but Draco was good at guiding her and it went pretty well.

Right up until Ron cut in.

"Mind if I take this dance?" he asked in a tone that implied he wouldn't take no for an answer. Draco scowled at him but nodded, not leaving until he'd taken Hermione's hand and kissed it. She didn't want him to go. He was her icy shelter, the one with the good comebacks and no issues with being cruel. Sighing and looking after him, she let Ron begin to guide her.

"So, Malfoy, huh? What's the slick git wanting from you?"

"Simply to take me to the ball," Hermione responded, wincing in pain as Ron stepped on her foot but not saying anything. Where her and Draco had been twirling around gracefully, Ron and she were more like clumsily swaying from side to side.

"He probably has a secret agenda. Why else would he ask you?"

Hermione frowned at him. "That's not a very nice thing to say, Ronald."

"He's not a very nice person," he said instead, finally after having avoided her eyes looked at them.

"He seems to have changed," she commented, noticing Draco watching them carefully from afar.

"He's using you," Ron said. Now neither of them were moving, simply standing in the middle of the dance floor.

"I can take care of myself, thank you," Hermione replied with a colder voice than intended."Now if you will excuse me, I should get back to my date."

"Fine but when he's hurt you and used you don't come crying to me," Ron said. Hermione, who'd been walking away stopped and turned around, her gaze furious.

"How dare you?" She asked in an incredulous tone.

"He's probably just in for a quick solution to a dry spell or something," Ron said, his eyes seemingly covered with a glassy layer of jealousy. His words were like a knife.

"Since when have I ever given the impression that I was that easy?" Hermione asked, fighting tears. Ron opened his mouth again, but she interrupted him with a sharp "Don't!"

Then she left the Great Hall, walking right past Draco. She nearly collapsed onto the stone steps out in the entrance hall where tears began flowing. Despite what she felt and thought of Malfoy, some of Ron's words had struck her with doubt. She hugged her knees, gently rocking back and forth as she sobbed silently to herself.

"What'd that weasel say to you?" came a voice from in front of her. Hermione looked up, her vision blurry but not enough for her not to recognize Draco. Something soft was pressed into her hand and she noticed it was a fine piece of cloth. Wiping her eyes with it, Hermione shook her head.

"He was just being a git," she muttered, now able to see him clearly. He was crouched in front of her, eyes both caring yet furious at the same time. "He's just good at ruining everything."  
>"He hasn't ruined anything," Draco responded, more caring than Hermione ever thought he could be. As another tear fell, Draco reached up and wiped it off. "Are you really going to let some twit ruin your evening with the one and only me?" he asked, his tone completely switching to humorous. Hermione smiled softly. "No. One as privileged as I must make the most of this outstanding offer. Take me to your leader," she said dorkily, having no idea what she was talking about. Draco laughed, pulling her to her feet. Before she knew it he leaned in and pressed his soft lips to hers. Hermione's knees grew weak and she closed her eyes, relishing the moment just as Draco did, all traces of sadness gone from her.<p>

Once they parted Hermione took a few seconds to regain her ability to speak.

"What was that for?" She asked.

Draco smiled, taking her hand. "I believe there's a muggle way of dealing with things:

Kiss it to make it better. Did it work?"

Hermione smiled. "It's starting to."

**I am so sorry for the delay! I've had a very busy past few months: mom had surgery started a new school, my head's been a mess but I'm back! **

**Thanks to everyone who's read, reviewed and favorited! It is much appreciated.**

**Hope you enjoy the final chapter. I for one am not happy with the ending but it's out!**

**Take care :)**


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